OSaBC : The Bird of Hermes

by LogicalPremise

A prequel of sorts in preparation of a roleplaying segment set in the Premiseverse, combined with expanding on understanding some of the pre-Prothean races and their impact on the current cycle. Warning, this is going to be hard and ugly sci-fi horror mixed with political maneuvering and science babble. Language, imagery and concepts are probably best not left to teens or children

18. Chapter 18

OSaBC : The Bird of Hermes

Chapter Eighteen: Unsubtle Monstrosity

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A/N: MUCH credit to EnigmaticOne, who spent hours and hours gathering the RP notes up, typing them in, and cleaning up the grammar. Any mistakes are mine, not his.

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"And who's bright idea was it to send Rho into that pack of clowns without backup?"

"Please. Rho is disposable. Once we were sure he could not replicate his uncle's techniques, his only use was to clean up messes. But as to who sent him, it wasn't me."

"Then who, Admiral?"

"Are you that blind, Branson? The High Lords had someone in HERMES, that much is known. Probably Chu. Rho was sent along to clean up any loose ends. He couldn't have been sent in with Kinnix, or Bright for that matter - neither one of them would go along with such a thing. Holden was pragmatic enough to let Rho do his work."

"And the aftermath? People will ask questions."

"I have already prepared for that eventuality, long before this ridiculous accident occured."

Admiral Branson and Admiral Vandefar, private comms, personal log from Branson's files in the Magog Incident

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A series of announcements went out over the R&D comms network, the auto-generated voice cold yet strident.

"Alert. Secondary security forces Aleph, Seraph, and Samael, please report to the Shuttle Departure Area. Ahaltocob Technical Service Division Six, please report to the Shuttle Departure Area."

"The Repensum will be launching in thirty minutes. All units not on board at this time will be reported to Black Rendition for reconditioning."

Black armored forms hustled forward, carrying large packs and heavy rifles, each with a gear patch on the shoulder. Loaders busily moved supplies into the shuttles, while the fearsome bulk of the Repensum loomed outside. Arms folded, Malcolm Holden surveyed all of the frantic activity, before checking his omni-tool one last time.

"Hostile Response Active Team One, please report to Shuttle Departures immediately."

"There's the music, time to dance." Commander Holden said to himself, as he saw Wilson bring the other members of the Hostile Response team. From the sour expression on his XO's face and the fact that one person was missing, he assumed that Angsar was late, again.

The hard voice of Colonel Sahu boomed out across the shuttle bay, her massive frame looming above the loaders working on the shuttles. "Move! Anyone with Ache Lamao, get boarded. Change of plans, briefing on the ship. Anyone not in the ayys, get the goddamned lead out! I want the technerds loaded in ten fucking minutes or I will pull someone's goddamned spleen out through their eyesockets."

"You heard the boss, let's roll." Wilson informed his companions. He walked briskly toward the shuttles and Holden, glancing around.

Lt. Srinja Avasarala kept up with Wilson easily despite the height difference. "Rolling is anatomically impossible for us. Let's fuck shit up and actually see what the fuck we have to do this time."

"You could get some roller skates." Holden suggested as they met up with him, a poorly hidden smirk on his face, even as they drew next to Sahu.

Colonel Sahu glanced aside at Holden, rolled her eyes, then smiled at Wilson...

"Who fucked up a Wholesome Digsite now?" Angsar 'Wedjat' Falkner, one of Ache Lameo's most 'special' assets entered, walked forward, his usual placid stance barely affected by all the chaos around them.

Holden merely sighed. "I still want to know what moron thought bringing you along was a bright idea, Angsar."

The other man shrugged, his cold black eyes amused. "I am sure I don't know what you're talking about, Commander. I'm only here to … help."

"Because it went so well last time." Olon Iridian, the Fury, muttered, and the rest of the team seemed to agree. Angsar was 'experimental', something the tech-boys in Ache Lameo's science division cooked up using God only knew what kind of archaeotech. Sadistic and malicious, Angsar typically was more used by the Alpha Team of Hostile Response, mockingly named the Snatch and Grab team, as his focus was more on heavy battle than any kind of subtlety.

Holden could grudgingly admit to seeing the logic, but he'd never say that out loud. Instead he merely turned to Sahu. "Squad is green and ready to move out."

Angsar gave a mocking bow to Sahu. "I'm a good boy, see?"

"You really want to try me, flakboy?" Sahu glared at Angsar, then sneered. "Just because the old lady hasn't done anything don't mean shit – test me and I'll pull you into pieces and throw what's left out the airlock."

She grunted, ignoring Angsar's grin, and turned to the rest of the team. "Wilson. Your team assigned on shuttles two and three, please get your whackass boss and this collection of inept fuckups - and you and Olon - there quickly. Some shit has gone bad and Vandefar currently has both the HLOS and High Command screaming at her."

"We get two shuttles? So Holden can crash one?" Srinja asked sardonically. Angsar chuckled loudly, while Wilson only nodded and gestured to the team. "Let's move, and for God's sake, don't start fires, or crash into anything. If you do, I'm pulling it out of your hides... or in Holden's case, time with his wife. Move!"

"We get flamethrowers?" Angsar perked up.

"Hey, as I recall, we had to pull you out of the fire last time, Wilson." Olon complained, the group heading out.

"Flamethrowers? Only for Angsar No one else will know if it's a fucking stupid idea to pull the trigger." Srinja chuckled.

"It is always a good idea to burn stuff." Angsar glanced at Srinja.

Wilson sighed in exasperation "You'll get to look at the flamethrowers on the shuttle. Now get your ass there or I'll Throw you there."

"I'll have you know Lieutenant I am an excellent pilot-" Holden stopped and turned on his heel as Sahu focused on him.

"Pretty boy. Need a moment." She gestured to the far wall. Holden walked over there with her, as the team got into the shuttle, and then glanced up at the much taller Sahu. "What's up?"

She spoke quietly, shaking her head. "So, don't go mentioning this, Malcolm, but Lord General Kinnix has gone missing. So has his entire fucking House and all his knights. The Commissars are doing a general scramble, but it looks like he had planned for them evac – before he even got to the system."

"Great, he learned something that made him defect his entire Lord of Sol house from the goddamn Alliance – and he knew it before he went in." Holden spat. "I'm guessing they think he's still in the system?"

Sahu folded her arms. "Admiral Vandefar isn't sure. She's... not on station right now." The colonel's features twisted into a smirk. "And since she's not, I've taken the liberty of sending three companies of Ahaltocob gear-heads along. They'll stay at the landing site and handle containment, but it's better than a fucking five man team down there alone - whatever is down there is bad. The captain of the Repensum will brief you on what little else we know, along with Paig."

She paused and exhaled. "Please, take care of the doctor. He's too old to be in the field like this..." This had to be the first time Holden heard anything but iron in Sahu's voice.

"I've met him, reminds me of my great grandfather - and he is yours. I promise I'll get him back safe and sound." Holden replied.

The colonel nodded. "And try not to get Wilson killed either."

"I will do my utmost to return your boy toy to you." Holden added, more impishly.

Sahu smirked and turned away, barking orders at a nearby mech.

Holden headed for the shuttle, a determined look coming over his face, even his gait.

"Ah, a serious look." Angsar commented upon seeing Holden. "Good fun incoming?"

"This will be the funnest mission you've ever gone on Falkner." Holden told him sarcastically. "And if we're lucky, you'll die horribly and in a fashion we can upload video to the extranet. Who are we missing?"

Holden clambered aboard the shuttle as Wilson answered. "Rho and the doctor...but I see him coming now." He pointed, and Dr. Paigashani walked up to the rest of the team, wearing some kind of light body armor painted a dark mottled black, with an Eagle pistol clipped neatly to his waist.

"I am reporting as ordered. I presume we're boarding now?"

Upon recognizing Paigashani, Angsar's eyebrows rose a good bit. "Oh, now that is new."

"Yes Doctor, they are briefing us en route." Holden told him.

Paig winced. "Well, this already sounds like a clusterfuck in the making, commander. I'll introduce myself to your team in the shuttle before Nyomba tries to break my ribs with another goodbye hug." The doctor clambered inside carefully, sitting on the far side, seeming mostly amused by the situation though.

Holden strapped himself down, as did the rest. "All we can do is wait, we're ready."

"Can you really be 'ready' for the kind of things we do?" Olon snarked.

The shuttles finished loading, people chivied aboard along with bags and technical equipment as needed. The second shuttle launched first, along with a squadron of heavy fighters, docking with the dreadnought.

"Alert. Launch in five minutes." The comms blared. "Set condition Silver. All Ahaltocob units, engage active life-signal monitors for kill-switch activation."

"Mark that down as the least concerning thing I've heard today." Holden said sincerely.

To everyone's surprise, the shuttle cockpit door slid open, revealing the form of Captain Rho, dressed in the under-suit overlay of DEVASTATOR armor. He gave an almost rakish smile. "I will be the pilot for this trip. Holden, is this everyone on your team?"

Olon muttered a muffled curse to himself. Angsar smiled more. "You as well? Well, this mission will be very interesting."

"The clown posse is 100% assembled, Captain." Holden formally replied.

Angsar suppressed a laugh at the team moniker, and Rho sighed.

"I am beginning to grasp why the Admiral finds your unit exasperating, Commander. No matter. If we're all loaded, we can get going." Rho turned to sit at the pilot controls, leaving the door open. "Abyssos Docking, this is shuttle Popov. Ready for launch departure. Package is aboard. Specialist is aboard. Team is aboard."

"We aren't aren't even on the ground yet and he's acting like we don't have a perfect record. Asshole." Srinja snapped over the team's private channel.

Angsar grinned quietly before sending a clown emoji to the team's private comms. "Remember, we are the clowns."

"Understood, Popov. You are clear for launch."

Rho set the controls to manual, and guided the shuttle out smoothly, showing clear experience at piloting. Holden found this more than a little interesting since Rho's records – at least the parts that weren't blacked out – did not state him to be a rated pilot.

The trip took a mostly quiet five minutes - Rho didn't respond to questions and Paig focused on tabbing through his reference materials. The rest of the team checked gear and armor, supplies and scanned their own omni-tools for updates.

The shuttle dipped under the bulk of a comms sat and came into view of the enormous Repensum, the launch bays each holding a dozen fighters, along with assault shuttles, and a full-up hostile insertion combat pinnace done in black. Four light cruisers formed up behind the shuttle as Rho landed it neatly in a haptic illuminated square, where a pair of officers in black and red versions of the naval uniform stood.

The cockpit doors slid open and Rho stepped through, pausing to toggle the power for the shuttle's engines before speaking. "We will be briefing with the ship's tactical officer shortly." Rho stated as he cut the engines off. "The ship's VI and guide link has been pushed to your omni's. Our team is all birthed on deck one, VIP section. The VI will show your rooms. You have ten minutes to put your gear up and report to level four, tactical center. Do not engage in conversation with the crew. Do not speculate."

He glanced at Angsar. "Try to restrain yourself."

"You are doing wonders for morale, Captain." Holden dryly remarked.

"...I could have a Black Rendition Commissar give the briefing. Morale is your job, Commander, so I recommend you get to it so I can do mine. Dismissed."

Agent Rho stalked away, past the two officers, and Paig shook his head. "That man is dickless."

Angsar snickered. "That issue pretends to be a man, you mean."

"Did... did he just dismiss me like I'm not the CO here?" Holden complained. "Whatever, I've heard too much fucked up stuff today to give a damn, let's get to briefing everyone."

Holden stepped out of the shuttle, followed by Wilson, and glanced up to one of the ship's officers stepping up: "Yes, Lieutenant Commander?"

"Excuse me, Commander Holden?" The woman asked. She was somewhat short for a line officer, blade thin and with the flat-black hair and features of the common eurochinese majority, offset by a cybernetic eye and some ugly scarring along the right side of her face.

"Yes, that's me." Holden folded his arms, listening.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Iris Senna. The admiral sends his compliments and will be providing a briefing shortly as your, uh, attache officer indicated. If you and your team will follow me, I can guide you to the VIP section and answer any questions."

"VIP? Usually we get briefed in the shuttle. Must be hot shit for once." Srinja remarked over the team channel.

"Attache Officer? That's a good one, lead on Lieutenant Commander." Holden told Senna.

Senna led them to the far deck, where a larger than usual lift - big enough for battlesuits - hissed open. "The Repensum gets a lot of, uh, odd missions, sir. And odd officers doing briefings."

"Considering it doesn't technically exist that's a given." Holden observed, as Wilson reprimanded an embarrassed Olon for staring at Senna.

The ship suddenly shuddered, the comm system lighting up.

"All stations set condition 2SQ. Security teams, prepare for hostile boarding evolutions. Shifts Two and Three are offwatch. Maintain full vigilance and prep for relay transit. All non-ship personnel are reminded that access to the bridge and any operational spaces is prohibited during flight. Your VI will inform you of berthing, mess and recreational facilities."

"Boarding actions? What the fuck?!" Srinja asked, a sensible question given that they should be nowhere near a space battle.

Senna smiled at Holden. "The Admiral is, uh, cautious and sets 'repel boarders' whenever we leave the system. The Repensum boasts over five hundred marines, its own N7 team, and two lances of battlesuits, not to mention, er, other esoteric defenses." She lead them to a large lift, tapping a control panel once everyone was inside.

"It wasn't that long ago that I myself boarded an Alliance dreadnought under threat of hostiles." Holden recalled, having earned his Star of Terra saving Fleet Master Dragunov from geth. "I understand your CO's concern."

"That was a fun mission." Wilson said, recalling an entirely different mission.

"You weren't there. The turian dreadnought was nowhere near as bad." Holden clarified.

"If we're setting boarding defenses and are about to head out to one of our usual missions, I pity whoever is nearest to the hull." Angsar shook his head.

The lift shuddered gently and opened up on a deck carpeted in stock SA white and blue. A wood-paneled passageway looked out over the main gundeck with armaglass windows showing Arcturus outside pulling away rapidly.

"Follow me, please." Senna brought the team past the first corridor - ominously marked 'VIP containment' - to the second one.

"There are a dozen cabins on the right here - each one has a sleeping pod, recycler and refresher, and a small entertainment console. The two first doors on the left lead to an officer's mess and the deck's lounge. The third door is the VIP briefing area."

Senna glanced at her omni-tool. "Please drop off your personal belongings in a room and, when ready, meet in the VIP briefing area. The admiral will be here shortly."

"Thank you Lieutenant Commander, good luck on the space side of things." Holden dropped his ship bag in one of the rooms.

"Don't break shit because it looked funny, Falkner." Wilson warned while dropping off his bags.

"I only do that sometimes." Angsar objected. "Well, time to see what we're dealing with this time. I assume the normal degree of 'We don't actually know what is going on, have fun finding out.'"

The VIP briefing room was luxurious - thick leather gimbaled seats around a table of real wood, with inset haptics and the entire far wall taken up a huge haptic screen. The near wall had a wet bar, minifridge, and a collection of odd knicknacks.

The front of the room was occupied by a massive, if somewhat short, man in an admiral's uniform, with a non-regulation beard and biceps the size of most people's legs. Ribbons occupied the entire left side of his uniform, including a Star of Sol with three repeats.

"Have a seat, people." The admiral instructed everyone in a voice of graven bass, deep and calming, but with a hard edge of both command and something like concern.

"Nice chairs." Angsar commented to the admiral as the group sat down.

"We paid about eleven kcreds for the chairs, they'd better be nice." The admiral replied, eyes narrowing as Rho entered and seated himself at the far end of the table. Then he met eyes with a commissar sticking his head into the room.

"Good. This is everyone, I think, Commissar Ujan. Seal the deck. SUPERNOVA BLACKFLASH and all that shit."

The Commissar nodded and departed, and the admiral tugged down the front of his uniform.

"Carl, make the rounds and see what people want to drink. Coffee, tea, nuorange juice, water, or soda. We'll save the Jack Daniels for after the fucking briefing."

"Water is fine." Holden said.

"Same." Wilson agreed. "Heavier drinks will be welcome after the briefing, if my hunch is right."

Angsar nods. "Same." He turns back to the Admiral. "We'll have enough alcohol, I hope."

"Son, we carry a goddamned licensed distillery on board with the shit we see." The admiral replied. The slender ensign standing next to him quietly took each person's drink orders.

The other ensign sat at a data console next to the haptic screen, extended a data-jack cable from her temple to the machine, bringing up a haptic keyboard and turned to face the admiral attentively. Tactical Officer Senna sat next to the Admiral, smiling at Paig on her other side.

Srinja took water, Olon and Paig tea.

The admiral looked to the tech adept ensign "Alice, we good?" She nodded, the slightly glazed look in her eyes familiar to Srinja - indicating she was probably hooked into the ship VI - and the admiral exhaled.

"Good. I'm Vice Admiral Jurik Kholan, in charge of Task Force Trajan and the Repensum." Kholan glanced at Rho. "Familiar with the captain, but your crew is not one we've had to ferry around before, Commander."

"We usually stick to lighter insertions, ones that usually don't require the firepower of a dreadnought stuffed with all the advanced archeotech the High Lords could find." Holden dryly explained. "At the very least I'm sure this one will be more exciting."

Amusingly enough, Kholan only nodded at this. "Figures. Well, not sure whose mouth you pissed in to get this task, but shit has already gone beyond Hell and the past two hours have been extremely bad."

The admiral gave a nod to the tech ensign, who brought up a starmap. "I'm not sure what kind of briefing you have had, or how drunk Synthia must be to think this stunt won't end up badly, but you might as well get the full information on what is happening so you can judge for yourself."

"Not familiar with this part of space. New area?" Wilson asked, looking at the map.

"Not really. Empty mostly." Admiral Kholan cleared his throat.

"So, here is the sitrep. Ashland Eldfell recon teams find remote system based on a tip. Place down a mining station and base. Go missing. Recovery teams go missing. R&D sends in HERMES. Both teams and the fucking security detail go missing. HLOS send in the Decca to take a look, she gets her entire ass handed to her in less than twenty minutes after firing off a full load of Kyle Torpedoes at whatever attacked her."

"Great tip. 90% trap." Angsar chipped in over the private channel.

"We send in a containment crew, those ships never report back. Synthia sends in her own shitwrecker, he goes down in a pile of fuck and we lost contact with the support vessel. At this point, for whatever reason, R&D does not escalate this to Big Spooky, but sends notified Lord General Kinnix that his son is missing and in the system. Jason, having all the restraint of a bull, charges right in. Vanishes. Then his entire goddamned House up and vanishes too. HLOS say they don't know about that, I figure they had the Black Hats BBQ them."

Wilson resisted the urge to facepalm. "You've got to be kidding me." He said over the private comm.

"So here is the situation. By formal request of the High Lords, the Repensum is being sent in to locate survivors for evac before another task force shows up to, ah, sterilize the system." Kholan summarized with a thin, ugly smile. "And a Citadel force is also on the way."

Holden raised an eyebrow. The last part was new information.

"There are two problems with this setup." Admiral Kholan went on. "The first is that - and this is something I just learned - that we are sort of doing this illegally. I mentioned Big Spooky – that's a nickname for another group, one that is specialized in handling anomalous sites. Not only are we technically not supposed to be deploying before they do, this other group is supposed to be in charge. Whoever this other group is also has a private dreadnought, which are not exactly common ships." He sighed and added a moment later, in a quieter tone. "And it's called the Spear of Longinus, which doesn't bode for much of anything fucking good at all."

"Welp, broke the law once, what's another time?" Wilson muttered under his breath.

"We plan on being long gone by the time they arrive." Holden pointed out.

"Son, I really hope so." Kholan said. The admiral tapped his omni several times, then glanced up.

"Here's the mission brief. The HERMES team is presumed dead as fuck. If they aren't, great, put holes in their heads and burn the goddamned bodies. The containment team outside the relay leading to Produga didn't report any ships, so Jason Kinnix is still in the system. I'm sure you have some kind of stupid orders to kill him. I'm also sure none of you fucking nancies are even close enough to being hard enough to actually do that, so I would strongly recommend getting him to stand down. Maybe he's learned what the fuck is going on.

Angsar raised a hand. "In case he is there and not willing to comply, what are our orders?"

Admiral Kholan fixed Angsar with a look. "Try not to bleed too much."

"Just really hope he is already gone, Falkner." Holden chipped in.

Angsar grinned. "Sure."

"If he's hostile you have no choice but to kill him." Kholan granted reluctantly. "Then again, if he's hostile, something has already gone even more wrong. We need someone alive to explain what in the absolute fuck is going on in that system, so if you have to kill him, try to keep one of his knights alive at least."

The admiral glanced at the ensign, who shifted the viewscreen to images of the Decca and shuddered. "System approach will be handled by my people. Things are liable to get hot, fast. You are to remain in quarters until it's time to land, and until that time, I don't take orders from you."

"You're a bit too high rank for me to attempt that sir." Holden assured him, though he had a suspicion as to whom it had been meant for.

"...That is not precisely correct, Admiral, if I have tasking from Admiral Vandefar that contradicts your orders." Of course Rho was going to interfere.

"Captain, if you really think anyone on my ship is going to listen to you, you're free to try." Kholan told the agent coldly. "Otherwise, I'd suggest Admiral Vandefar has already clusterfucked this to hell and gone and it's time to let the Navy sort shit out, and that you won't enjoy the Commissars on board shooting you in the head if you try shit."

The captain grimaced, and Holden chuckled. "Welcome to the Navy, Rho."

Admiral Kholan snorted with amusement. "As for the system itself… well, whatever is in there did this to a fucking Kazan-class heavy cruiser in a half hour. Three other light cruisers apparently got wiped, and we've lost contact with two support ships."

"Will we have a distraction while inserting or will we be relying on the Repensum's defenses?" Angsar inquired.

"The latter. The pinnace you're going down in is hostile rated, however, and is... very well shielded. It's also FTL capable in case the Big R has to leave the system. In theory, we should be able to stand off any attackers and the fighter wing will keep anything off your back as you land."

"That'll go well," Wilson snarked over the private comms.

"Just swimmingly. In practice, will be interesting to see." Angsar replied.

"In reality, prep for the Repensum to have to exfil. Got it." Wilson said out loud.

"We have almost no ground telemetry to speak off aside from fragmentary reports from Vandefar's troubleshooter, who actually made it down in one piece." Kholan added. "Recover him alive if you can. Other than that, my instructions are once you reach the planet's surface, I'm to coordinate with the Commander for targeting orbital bombardment missions, but if I detect incoming FTL wakes I am to clear the system. So if the clean-up crew shows, they'll have a dreadnought and you won't, so I suggest either working fast or being very fucking polite."

"None of you have the clearance to learn much about Big Spooky except the doctor here, who I'm told has already briefed Commander Holden yes?"

"Correct, admiral." Paig nodded. "I'd like to brief the rest of the team, as well, unless you have additional information."

"By all means, go ahead. Mind if I listen? I rarely get to see just what in fuck the poor bastards I drop off get into."

Paig had an amused smile. "Of course, admiral." He turned to face the group.

"This morning I forwarded you all an information package about the Choir, known as the Ythrongi. I apologize for the paucity of information, but we know very few hard facts about this species. Did everyone receive that?"

"Affirmative." Holden confirmed.

"Good, good. Well, not good, but..."

"I'm assuming you have more info for us?" Angsar wondered.

Paig nodded. "Yes. Some of it related to our scramble, I expect... Admiral, do we have visuals on the bogeys you reported?"

"Oh, that shit. Yes. Drone footage. We had a six-ship interdiction team outside the Produga relay leading to the Jeremiah system, with more ships on the Omagon side of the relay."

The admiral tapped his omni, and the haptic screen blanked before displaying a starfield. Four destroyers, a light cruiser and a supply ship were in standard dagger formation near the relay when strange bluish swirls appeared near the relay.

The ships brought up kinetics, as out of each swirl a huge blackened mass erupted. Each one at least 300 meters long, maybe fifty meters wide, looking like a mass of thick ropy snakes bound into a worm-like shape, the front end of each is split into a jagged maw glowing with reddish light.

The recorded fight was short and ugly, the weapons and missiles of the ships doing almost no damage. Four of the ships took hits by reddish beams, which crumpled or collapsed large sections of the ships. The cruiser was attacked directly, the huge worms 'biting' into the hull. Swarms of black furry-orb-things on spindly limbs erupted into view, pouring into the ship.

"The supply ship got off three message drones before they blew her out of the sky." Admiral Kholan concluded, leaning back in his chair. "Pickets in the Omagon system report no activity from the Produga relay, but we've lost comms with both the HE3 fueling station and the stellar research facility in Produga."

"...As you can see the situation is... dire." Paig finished off.

"That's one word for it, Doc." Wilson remarked.

"I would go with omnifucked myself." Holden judged.

"Well, yes. Omnifucked has a certain panache to it, doesn't it?" Paig agreed. "The things boarding the ships match some of the descriptions reported to us by Colonel Bright, Admiral Vandefar's troubleshooter she sent in, as seen on the wreckage of the Decca. Admiral, did these ships have defenses, marines on board, LOKI mechs, anything?"

"The destroyers had fifty man standard marine contingents. A-rates. The cruiser had a lance of Ag Twos and 200 marines, plus two pods of LOKIs for boarding." Kholan reported.

"And these things tore through them like they were nothing. Great." Wilson groused.

"Plus internal turrets, cover, the whole nine yards." Holden added.

"What did Kinnix have that the books might not have mentioned?" Srinja asked. "He's kind of an oddball, right?"

Admiral Kholan tilted his head. "Jason was a gropo from the start, not a Navy guy. He's pretty heavily cybered up, and his knights were all tough CQB types, and at least one of 'em was biotic, I think. Assuming he ran into that shit, I suspect he's dead, given that those balls look like fucking gray goo with a stick up their ass."

"Do we know if the hostiles have advanced VI- or even AI capabilities?" Wilson inquired.

"The reports from Bright seem to indicate that VI's could be compromised." Paig replied. "It's possible this is some kind of archeotech nanodefense response."

"What about our cyber?" Angsar asked.

"You should be fine unless you are directly interfaced with physically." Paig promised.

"We VI-stripped our gear as a precaution before we left." Wilson noted. "Is the Repensum running any VIs?"

"Stock VI's for shit like food processing and things of that nature. The ship's core is running in air-gapped iso laser link mode." Kholan explained. "Once we hit the system, we go to manuals."

He rubbed his chin. "That does mean we will not be able to assist you with much on the sensors."

"Understood. Apologies for asking the obvious, Sir." Wilson replied. "Just hoping we won't be bombarded by our own."

Kholan glanced at his omni, now flashing red. "Coming up on the first relay jump. We route from Arcturus to Benning, to XIII-A, to Samson, and to Omagon. I plan to go to 1SQ full battle readiness at Omagon and manual VI shutdown on everything except the mass core and alignment systems. The weapons system is controlled by hard-jacked operators. ETA is four and a half hours."

"We'll be ready, Sir," Wilson said, turning his gaze to the Doctor. "Is there anything else we need to know going into this, Doc? You sound as if you have some experience with this Choir, and even the group coming in after us, I think."

Paig stared down at the table. "The Choir does not match any of what we are currently seeing, Mr. Wilson. They are... their technology is mostly sonic, and organic in nature - but not like this. To be fair, if I didn't know better I'd almost suggest what we are seeing is something containing them... but I hope that is not the case."

Wilson raises an eyebrow. "So we're dealing with something else then. Security forces? Is this a prison for some of the Choir's worst offenders that history forgot about?"

"Wouldn't be the first nano- or picotech-based defenses we encounter." Angsar remarked. "We'll have to see what they're weak against, if anything." He glanced at Holden and then the Admiral. "Are we taking anything heavy down with us or just our standard gear?"

"Our initial landing will require some setup." Paig explained. "Colonel Sahu has sent along some of her engineering teams to drop alongside us and set up the landing area. That would include a very small research lab, some plascrete landing pads for planetary shuttles, comms systems and defenses. Ahaltocob engineers are equipped as A-rate marines, usually with combat shotguns and incendiaries. Ideally they would hold the position and protect the pinnace while we proceed overland. They can assemble gravbikes."

"How about a couple of JOTUNs?" Angsar inquired.

"There should be a pod of JOTUNS in the landing manifest. I had Ensign Silva go ahead and hard-code them and remove comms equipment." Paig smiled. "I'd caution you that the Decca had an entire lance of JOTUN mechs."

"We also have other equipment available, if needed. And of course each of you were selected for a reason." Rho commented.

"Why do you think we brought you along, Falkner?" Wilson dryly asked.

"For my dry wit and my enjoyable humor?"

"Of course. Always need comic relief."

"The Fury will be useful as their annihilation field should prevent them from being infected by nanonics in melee. Angsar's own abilities may provide us with some level of protection. Lieutenant Srinja will be critical in breaching and retrieving any data from HERMES data-banks and padds on site." Rho continued outlining. "I believe your XO also has some biotic ability."

"Wilson is a walking howitzer." Holden smirked.

"I am not an artillery piece! We talked about this!" Wilson muttered.

"Anything particularly interesting in the 'other equipment' that we could take along?" Angsar asked.

"Not particularly." Kholan replied. "The Repensum has some special equipment, but what gear you have is what you get. We do not expect to deploy groundside much so we don't carry a lot."

"I'd strongly suggest not splitting up, Commander." Paig broke in.

"Don't worry Doctor, we will be sticking together. I'm not about to fall for the oldest horror movie trope in the book." Holden assured him.

"As for the Choir...the information package I sent includes an image of one, drawn from the renditions of my own recollection as well as the other survivors. If you see one I recommend - very strongly - that you run." Paig bluntly warned the group. "Conventional weapons will only irritate it, and they tend to respond to biotic attack with ... extreme violence."

"Do biotic attacks irritate them, or actually injure them, Doctor?" Wilson wondered.

The smile Paig gave everyone was a little scary in how darkly amused it was. "My own experiences are...blurred. But from my recollection, they were able to deflect weapons fire and biotic attacks back at the attacker, including rounds from a GREAT WHITE MK I. Warp energy can hurt them, but not quickly - and they tend to focus attacks on biotics."

"Those are the rank-and-file. The leaders of the Choir - roughly translated as 'Lyrics' and 'Choirmasters' - have more upsetting abilities. Visual, auditory and perceptual hallucinations, terrain deformation, materials alteration. They did not attack conventionally. They Sang. The effects varied. Burning agony, nerve damage. A battlesuit melted to liquid in ten seconds. Blindness, terror, nervous system disruptions. The report I read said a Commissar fled in tears and terror from the last time we found a site of theirs, and Commissars are chemically and cybernetically modified to resist that kind of thing."

"Any kind of local flora or fauna that could be modified to resist that kind of effect?" Srinja pondered, trying to find a work-around.

"We don't really know anything about the local lifeforms, sadly. Bright's report was ... incomplete. He noted a staggering amount of corpses - some of which were ambulatory - and that the scale of the ruins was for creatures 3 to 4 meters tall, which is the scale of the Ythrongi. The song is also, I suspect, a cognitohazard."

Paig's smile turned bitter. "You will always hear it in the back of your mind."

"Great." Wilson scoffed.

"Does it transmit via audio alone or would rupturing one's hearing help?" Angsar asked thoughtfully.

"That we don't know. I would point out that few have the...ability to resist the Song, and that effects on terrain would imply it doesn't rely on you hearing it. There is possibly a psionic component, although that seems fantastical."

"True enough. But manipulation of matter and manipulation of the mind can be very separate." Angsar replied with a knowing expression. "Shutting down external mics when engaging the Choir seems like a valuable precaution."

Paig shrugged. "If there is nothing else, I'd recommend eating and a short nap before we arrive..."

"Good idea." Kholan rose. "I will be on the bridge. Comms will connect you to the TAC, Senna will get you whatever you need." The admiral and his staff departed.

Wilson decided to address the elephant in the room. "Captain, is there anything you need to add?" Rho turned face Wilson, his voice cool and clipped.

"Only that our highest priority is the recovery of usable tech and determining what happened to HERMES." The boogeyman of R&D replied. "Kinnix is, frankly, secondary and unimportant unless he has valuable information. The faster we are done with finding what we need and leaving, the less likely we are to conflict with the Department of Abnormalities - or run into these Choir creatures directly. If the system could be weaponized...it would be useful, but I suspect we won't get the chance for long-term study."

"We should prioritize data over actual objects, I don't want to get corrupted by touching anything. You'll have to make do with scans Doctor." Holden instructed, having made his decision long ago.

Agent Rho shrugged. "We don't know that physical objects are corruptive, Commander."

Angsar raised an eyebrow. "Something on this scale is rarely controllable."

"I agree with the Commander. No telling if we find something set to go off if anything not their species touches it." Wilson agreed. "Scans will have to suffice."

"I would argue that perhaps examining it to determine if it's dangerous would be the first line of action." Rho disagreed.

"Considering what happened to the people who already did that..." Holden rolled his eyes.

Rho ignored him. "Information alone is not going to help us with the Reaper situation and we cannot somehow get more dead than 'complete galactic extermination', after all."

"I would beg to differ.." Angsar whispered over the private comms.

"With all due respect, Sir, but dealing with the Reapers won't be helped at all if we don't survive Rho with our findings." Wilson retorted.

"And the data is better than nothing." Holden added.

Olon finally spoke, as Rho interlaced his fingers. "Since you seem to be the authority on this, Rho, how would you propose we go about weaponizing a solar system that seems to be keeping trapped creatures that can sing a battlesuit into mush."

"Allow me to ...clarify."

"This should be good." Holden muttered on the private line.

"There are three possibilities. One, that we discover isolated weapons systems that we can create that provide us with enhanced power. Two, that we find a method of communication and cessation of hostilities with these Ythrongi and enlist their aid. Or three, that we establish a method of communication with these other creatures who are powerful enough to trap them. Frankly, I find the third situation unlikely, the second probably too dangerous, given their ability to manipulate, and the first as the most likely to be limited in scope and capable of being pulled off without complications. Graviton weaponry of the likes we have already seen demonstrated would be of immense use. I agree that anything nanotechnological is unlikely to be safe to experiment with, but there may be other physical artifacts."

"Captain you have literally just said the worst possible thing you could have said... What the hell do you think a HERMES team under Synthia Vandefar's niece tried to do? Exactly what you just said - and what happened to them Captain?"

Rho shrugged. "I think the HERMES team under the niece was stupid and hasty, given we both know Ciana Vandefar to be arrogant and entirely too enamored of her own intellect."

"Says the pot to the kettle." Holden muttered.

"Furthermore, to be blunt, why do you think we are being dispatched? Do you honestly think the HLOS would have something this dangerous and not immediately act to contain it if there was any chance of it going wrong if the situation was less dire?"

"Contain being the keyword here," Olon specified, "not capture and reverse engineer."

Rho shrugged again. "Containment is not our job. We are here to find something useful. If you can't do that, you should try anyway, as I am fairly sure the HLOS will simply have you shot if your excuse for not bringing back useful tech is 'I was scared'."

"That doesn't mean that we have to be stupid about what we do in following that directive." Wilson retorted.

Agent Rho leaned back. "I suspect your definition of 'stupid' varies from mine. As you have so delicately pointed out, I am not technically in charge of this mission." He lazily stood. "I have reports to make before we arrive. Commander, I trust I'll see you prior to departure."

Holden was not going to let him off like that. "Captain, you know damn well that the reason Vandefar doesn't get along with me is because I refuse to do the mad science bullshit the other Hostile Response teams do and what you are recommending. Most of my team's successes stem from that refusal. We're going down there, we're going to find out what exactly happened, we aren't going to touch anything, we're going to get the data, and then we are going home."

Agent Rho cast a piercing look at Holden. "Commander, I'll be blunt. I cannot stop you from deciding how you want to run this mission. I can tell you - and this is not a threat, this is merely me knowing how certain parties will act - if you do so you will be executed. Your wife will be executed. Every member of this team will be executed. The High Lords are not bypassing their own hand-picked containment teams because they want data. They are doing it for the same reason they sent in HERMES – they want hard research."

He smiled mockingly. "If you honestly think Vandefar is pulling all of these stunts without approval from the Maxwells and that you can ignore her in this you really are a clown. But I digress. Your orders - and how you carry them out - are not my concern. I am tasked with one thing only that does not concern you, nor does it ... violate your precious sensibilities."

Rho shallowly inclined his head and walked past Holden to the door.

"Being a dick to this entire team seems to be that task." Wilson murmured over the private comm.

"I highly doubt what he said will come to pass, but he definitely believes it himself." Holden shrugged.

Paig sighed. "Commander..." He smiled sadly. "Why exactly do you think they sent a creature like Rho along?"

"Dummy biotic support?" Wilson piped up.

"Scapegoat and control-feature." Angsar suggested.

Holden ignored them. "I know exactly why they sent him along, specific orders from Vandefar herself. She doesn't want him to come back."

Paig snorted. "Commander, while Admiral Vandefar is well-connected, Rho has a very good point. I assure you that Rho's handlers are well above Synthia's ability to control, or to order, and that if Synthia is not extremely careful she will find herself in a very poor situation, Commander."

"Synthia isn't the only friend I have in high places." Holden replied, remembering the reason he'd been sent to Ache Lameo.

Paig slowly stood. "I won't suggest that you do what Rho says - but I would strongly consider that you remember that Synthia is not the power standing behind that fool. Someone told him to say those things, which implies they picked you for a reason, Holden. Be cautious."

"Always am."

"If I have anything else of use, I'll write it up and send it out. I am going to eat something now." Paig exited, the door hissing shut behind him. The comm system went off.

"All hands, stand by for relay transition." The room felt the subtle kick of gravity, then the starfield outside the window changed.

The trip to the Produga system was fairly short, as spaceflights go. Somehow, the the Repensum seems to have the FTL speed of a fucking racing pinnace, not a big shooty warship.

Their rooms were disgustingly well appointed, the recycler neatly laundering the group's uniforms and the 'sleeping pods' more like luxury waterbeds. The 'small entertainment suite' had live news feeds from the Citadel, Sol, Palaven, Thessia, and a real-time link to the Vol Prime stock exchanges.

After a little under four hours, they heard the soft voice of the tac officer. "We are approaching the Omagon Relay to Produga. The admiral sends his compliments and suggests gearing for hostile insertion, as it is possible there are active X-rays in the Produga system."

"Alright team," Holden announced, "grab your gear and head for the dropship, resting is over." Holden secured his armor, and went through the checklist of his gear and doing final air-seal checks. After running through the list and ensuring he didn't have a VI in anything, he headed out, muttering "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

The Repensum erupted into the blue corona of the mass relay transit, and immediately the whum-thud of massive kinetic barriers snapping into place was heard. A moment later, Holden saw his omni connected to the ship's tactical grid and sensor net, and fed to the uniting team's HUDs.

The Produga system had four planets - two HE3 bearing gas giants, an inner rocky planet with high mining potential where a dozen mech-operated mines are located, with human supervisors in orbit on darkside orbital stations, and a tidally locked planetoid hosting a fairly sizable stellar research station.

Of the two HE3 stations - each with more than a thousand people on board - there was literally nothing, not even wreckage. The ship's sensors indicated graviton wakes in the rough trajectory of expected orbits, but that was all.

The mines were still operating, but the burning wreckage of several of the orbital stations were strewn along the darkside of the world, and with no apparent survivors. And were six semi-spherical metallic things near the planetoid with the research station.

Scans revealed them to mostly likely be SA warships, literally smashed into balls. The surface of the planetoid was punched into the mantle, the base and everything around it just gone. Finally, some kind of black ...moss or something was growing in long, straggling lines on the surface of the planetoid near the crater's edges.

"Oh, look. Unshackled weapon systems say 'hi'" Angsar deadpanned.

Holden's omni picked up a call from Admiral Kholan. "Well, this is considerably worse than expected. Good news - we aren't showing any active spaceships in the system except us. Bad news - lots of it. The stations all got wiped, null surprise. So did the poor bastards planetside, and yeah, there's some shit down there we'll deal with shortly."

"I'm more concerned that I'm seeing some wreckage near the FTL lane to Jeremiah - looks like the supply vessel. Transmitting a distress beacon."

"Likely a trap, then." Angsar nodded.

"Considering how this system looks, I agree with Falkner." Holden told the admiral.

"I'm sending out a wing of fighters to check it out remotely. Meanwhile, I'm glassing this system. I need your people to be ready to go."

"We are in the dropship, standing by." Holden confirmed.

Then Kholan was heard talking to someone else. "Lieutenant Jonsa, lock the Array onto the planet and fire."

The scene from the pinnace's sensor nets - linked to the ship's - proved horrific.

A torrent of white energy - not lasers, something else - pours out of the dreadnought to impact the planet.

Wilson whistles slowly. "The fuck did they put on this ship?"

Angsar - for a split second - sensed... something. Like a scream, but not sound. He felt as if something... wrong missed them, the planet below revealed to be blasted down to the mantle, glowing and melted. No sign of the black material remained, and about a fifth of the planet very simply gone.

"Let's not get hit by whatever that was." The Special Asset told the team. "Felt.. very very off, if you catch my drift."

"Admiral, what kind of weapons are on this ship?" Holden asked in shock.

Admiral Kholan chuckled. "Fraid that's above your clearance, Commander. Suffice it to say, in general… Stand off weapons, anti-ship, and planet killers. Stand off weapons are for disposing of icky shit at distances of more than a light minute. Anti-ship and planet killers are more obvious. That was a planet-killer."

"Did you say planet killers?" Wilson asks incredulously.

"Getting reports back from the fighter group." Kholan went on. "Stock distress message: 'We are experiencing VI issues, life support failing.' Yeah, right. Fighters are circling the wreck...it's got black shit on it, too, they report. Not getting close -"

He broke off, with a heavy, tired sigh. "Well...the poor bastards got out a drone. You'll not want to hear this, but..."

There was static, then a panicked, high voice: "- to any receiving units, this is Lieutenant James Ilva. Do not approach the Joyous Light! Open fire on it as soon as possible! DO NOT BOARD. DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR OPEN ANY COMMS!" "You hav - "

The signal cut out in an absolutely horrific sounding scream, then rapid-fire snapping and crunching noises.

"So... I'm just going to say it: Maybe not let those fighters get back?" Angsar proposed.

"I don't recall asking for your tactical advice." Kholan snapped.

"Fair enough, it's your ship."

The fighters returned, as the Repensum closed on the mining world. The ship shuddered, launching several torpedo-like objects from it. "Increase kinetics to full, maximum polarization on all armaglass." Kholan ordered. "Might wanna close your eyes."

The team set their visors to full polarization in preparation. There was a truly searing flash of light - leaving everyone literally unable to see for almost ten seconds - and as they blinked away afterimages...

...There was literally almost nothing left of the entire world below, a sullenly glowing core of nickel-iron slowly spreading under gravity in semi-liquid form. A moment later the ship rocked gently from a blast wave, and settled.

Holden whistled. Angsar checked the recorded playback from his cybernetic eyes. The first torpedo hit the planet and splattered something, then the second torpedo hit that. The resultant explosion was under the framerate of its recording, meaning it happened in under a nanosecond.

"Well, that was a very thorough kill.." Angsar whistles slowly in turn.

"Good hit, Admiral?" Wilson asked, blinking one last time to clear his eyesight.

"No traces remain, so yes. Other fighter group reports no debris in orbit of the gas giants… coming up now on the supply ship."

On the screen they saw the outline of a stock Athabasca-class freighter. The outline, because the entire visible surface of the ship was covered in black… mold or fuzz. Long, ropey lines, strands, or vines, slowly writhed along the many rents in the hull. A black fluid drifted close by and sealed the holes ever so slowly. The ship's engines were the only thing free of black stuff on them.

"Supply ship is gone." Holden stated the obvious.

"Yeah. Doing scanning bombardment now, we need hard data on this shit." Kholan replied. "No reaction, so there's that." His voice dipped. "What do you mean it's not coming up?"

After a moment, Kholan addressed Holden. "Science officer hasn't seen anything like this, mind if I route the scans to your doc?"

"Go ahead." Holden patched the doctor in. "Paig we need your expertise."

"...Fascinating." The doctor replied. "Please give me a moment to look at this, Admiral, Commander."

"Take the time you need, Doctor."

"I'll try. Although it doesn't make much sense. This isn't nano... exactly. It's alive in one sense."

"Alive?" Wilson exclaimed.

"There are traces of metallic arsenic, some higher organoborates and organophosphates, and several exotic polyoxometalates that you only see inside labs in most cases. I'd almost say this thing was some kind of... borate/phosphate fixing moss colony, except that it has 'cells' that operate more like nanites. They are capable of binding on subatomic levels, and the mass itself is generating something akin to magnetic fields that indicates... well, it looks like brain waves to me. Although that is not my specialty."

"Self-aware nanotech?" Wilson proposed unhappily.

"Why not go further?" Angsar ventured. "Highly advanced picotech?"

"Or worse, self-aware yoctotech. Again. it can operate at subatomic, possibly even sub-particulate levels." Paig noted. "Commander, we'll have to use full strength black nano formulation nine to stop this, and even then that may only slow it.

That said something, given BNF 9 was basically unrestricted gray goo with reproduction set to maximum, horribly illegal, and incredibly dangerous.

"Ah, yes. Fucking space magic." Angsar shook his head. "Not to disappoint but we can't do much against yoctotech."

"That isn't the worst part." Paig observed. "Fire won't work, not hot enough. Plasma should decohere it, warpfire would be better. EMP blasts would need to be capital-ship scale to do anything. Explosives might disrupt its formations, it is making hexagonal 'attach points' to other cells."

Suddenly, there was a pause. "Oh, God. Admiral! Destroy this ship this instant!" Paig shouted in panic.

"You got it. Weapons, full spread, fire all of it." Kholan ordered.

The ship shuddered as beams of tearing light, and a spray of glittering blue energy projectiles lanced out. The black-furred thing erupted, and a giant maw formed out of the bridge, but the fusillade of weapons hit and tore it apart in a blinding flash.

"Anyone care to explain what's going on in regular English?" Wilson asked, thoroughly confused.

"It set a trap," Holden explained, "the entire ship was a trap... ready to become one of those giant maws we saw on the tape."

"That's not worrying at all." Olon sarcastically commented.

Meanwhile, Angsar was struck by a flash of... something. It was as if his vision went off for some reason - colors failed to make sense, waves of a smoky energy wafted off everything, and he heard the voice.

The words are not English, but the sensitive understood them anyway. "Contain. Restrain. Report violations. Obey. Dissolve."

Angsar felt the sensation of falling, then snapped out of it a second later. "Now offering - tactical advice." He exclaimed with fake happiness before letting out a small suppressed grunt of surprise and shaking his head.

"Falkner?" Holden and Wilson were looking at him with concern.

"Admiral, Commander. That ship was transmitting something out of this system." Paig reported. "What, I don't know, but it was left there to analyze and record, I think."

"Fuck." Kholan swore. "And it's seen our weapons, great."

Angsar checked, Paig was on the team's private comm subnet. "Paigashani, how briefed are you on my... oddities?"

"Not at all. Compartmentalization." Paig replied over the team channel.

"Alright. Going by need-to-know: I have precognitive abilities which relate to.. out-of-phase communications as well. The killed enemy clearly communicated on a wave-length that intersected with that and I could understand it. It said - verbatim: 'Contain. Restrain. Report violations. Obey. Dissolve.' "They very likely know we are coming. And it very much sounds like a security system."

"That is not exactly clear, and the fact that I detected some form of outgoing data stream already let us know they knew we were incoming." Paig pointed out.

"This is sounding more and more like a prison." Wilson remarked.

"True, but now we know for certain." Angsar replied.

"The question I have then is how in the galaxy did they know we were coming?" Wilson growled.

"The… biological nature of the material implies these commands are encoded, not real time - and the concept of 'report violations' implies both a trigger state and someone to report to." Paig assessed.

"As for you Falkner, the only thing I know is that salarian precognitives tend to go insane at a rate six thousand times that of normal salarians. I would suggest trying not to see if things are this bad. And if I understand rumors, you are not typically a predictive precognitive, correct? That implies whatever you are 'seeing' is... massive."

"Commander," Paig now spoke to Holden, "the drone with the warning on it tells us one thing : sequestration and conversion are not instant. This material requires time to grow. On the other hand, the rather gruesome ending seems to indicate mobile, hostile, elements."

"How long does it need to grow in your opinion Doctor?" Holden asked.

"We have insufficient data but it takes some time. The chemistry here is even more ridiculous and improbable than volus biochemistry, which already reads like a chemist's joke." Paig complained. "I can tell you one thing, this stuff does not require air to breathe. Vacuum exposure is harmless to it."

Kholan interrupted over the open comnet. "Commander, my fighters have all reported in. No contaminants found. System is clean, for the moment. I'm having the escorting cruiser squadron move up to this relay and secure it. There… there's bits of what look like a minefield but it's been neutralized, so I guess mines won't work. Gonna have them set up a crossfire of Kyles, with a picket ship next to the relay to punch out if things go bad. Anything I need to know?"

"That shit sent out a signal, so anything on the other side of that relay is going to know we're coming, and probably have a war reception for us." Holden informed the admiral.

"I see." A moment later, the comms started blaring a general message.

"Alert. All hands, set full secure. Marine contingents, arm for hostile insertion. Battlesuits setup in Engineering, Bridge Approach Lane, Central Computing, and Hangars. All hands are to arm themselves and prepare vacuum suits and damage control parties are to report to stations. All engineering staff are to report to engineering, off watch will bunk in the emergency berthing. MREs and cold sandwiches will be distributed from supply station Beta. Seal engineering access hatchways."

"We're prepping for FTL in five." Kholan then warned the team.

The Repensum waited for the cruiser task force to show, then engaged primary FTL, heading directly for the Jeremiah system. The FTL transit passed mostly quietly, except for the tramp of half a dozen black-painted battlesuits setting up in the hangar, leveling heavy weapons here and there. Nearly a hundred marines - some with heavy weapons, plasma throwers, and missile launchers - tucked into heavy cover, along with at least ten or so JOTUNs.

After almost twenty minutes, the ship shuddered slightly, and the kinetics came up again, as the lights dimmed slightly.

"...Lovely." Kholan was heard muttering. "All hands, battle stations, spin up all defensive weapons, this is not a drill! Fighters, launch and engage! Commander, get your pinnace hot, sixteen xrays incoming."

"What's it looking like, Admiral?" Wilson asked.

There was silence on the line, until Senna's voice was heard. "Apologies, Lieutenant Commander. The Admiral is occupied. There are sixteen unidentified xeno vessels on high speed approach to the Repensum. Fourteen are similar to the, er, worm-like objects that destroyed the cruiser group. One is... I'm not sure how to describe this without sounding... strange. If our sensors are correct, however, one of the ships appears to be composed of decaying corpses, lashed together with some kind of biomaterial that is not scanning correctly. It is engaging one of the worm ships. The final ship appears to be the SCV Decca, at half battle speed, overgrown with the black stuff."

"Great, so we're dropping into a war where a stray shot can fuck all our shit?" Angsar predicted.

"I wouldn't say that Falkner, I'm sure the Repensum has quite the defenses, right Lieutenant Commander?"

"...In theory." Senna muttered. "Engaging x-ray one and two..."

"Sure, sure. But I'm also sure that the defenses are very much not military spec. And that was what I was referring to." Angsar told Holden.

"Direct hits, ships destroyed. They do not have range on these weapons, the Admiral thinks, so we are using long range energy beams and evading. …Shit." Senna's voice was tense.

The ship rocked drastically, throwing battlesuits and people to the ground. Heavy explosions rang throughout the hull, and a chunk of metal smashed into the cockpit - thankfully not hard enough to crack it. The ship shudders again, something detonated and this time...

This time they all heard it.

A scream, a noise like burning children, a call to something that isn't answering. Angsar had a slight nose bleed, the rest of the team suffered a ringing headache slowly fading.

"Oh they didn't like that, the fuckers." Kholan was heard wheezing. "All hands, engaging Tantalus device. Psionic attack is not severe, do not panic."

There is a sudden sense of blankness pervaded the area, dispelling the headaches as suddenly as they came.

"Sorry, Commander." Senna broke in, apologetic. "Had to man a station on the bridge."

"Part of the job." Holden rubbed his head.

"We have taken some damage, but nine of the x-rays are down. The Decca is hammering us with standard kinetics and we have hit her with a pair of Kyles for severe damage. The remaining x-rays are being chased by the, uh, corpse ship."

"Has the corpse shown any interest in us? Or just the X-Rays?" Holden asked, frowning.

"It flew right past us, so… Commander, we are holding course for the ...wha..." Senna's voice trailed off in terror.

"What is it, LTC?" Wilson asked, but Paig lifted a hand to the view screen.

On it, they saw one of the planets in orbit around the star - once a pale, off-white featureless ball. Now, the surface split apart, revealing titanic arms the size of continents that surge forth and grappled with the worm ships. Eyes covered the surface, a writhing ball in a twisted helical shape dominated the center.

"Let's just get to Rho, get our shit done, and get the fuck out of here." Wilson got out, visibly struggling to maintain his cool.

The Repensum skidded in space as she drastically altered course away from the planet, then shook again, more explosions going off.

"I really dislike this system's code name, I'd just like to point this out." Agent Rho had finally appeared. "And if the Admiral is stupid enough to engage that I'll field execute him myself."

"Oh? I can't ever imagine why." Wilson suddenly had a smile on his face.

"There is studying useful tech and then there is shit one should simply run the fuck away from, and I think giant ambulatory planets fall well into the latter category."

"But it might help us against the Reapers. Just look at it." Angsar grinned widely.

"Really? Sure you don't want to go bring a treasure chest of artifacts from it?" Holden now joined in the glorious Rho-taunting.

"It might help us against the Reapers. I'd point out it seems to be helping us now. That doesn't mean I want to hug it." Agent Rho gritted out.

"Hugging it? Is it your precious baby now, Rho? Loved one?" Srinja cooed mockingly.

"100k credits to whoever gets me an autograph." Olon added.

Agent Rho sighed. "Permission to shoot the Lieutenant in the face."

"Denied."

"Spoilsport." Rho indignantly muttered.

Senna interrupted the team's laughter. "The Decca has been destroyed, although it took two direct hits from the plasmatic p- I mean, the main weapons system. Sir. The, er, planet seems to be back to normal. The corpse ship is pulling back to another planet besides Rho-19. ...Sir, these orbits are perfectly circular, and the planets are perfect spheres if the sensors are trustworthy without VI management."

"Admiral Vandefar herself confirmed the orbits and diameters." Holden mentioned.

Paig chuckled. "Perfect circles, even. My old work friends who are on their way are going to froth at the mouth when they see this place."

"Sounds perfectly natural." Angsar said with a straight face. "Let's stay here."

Paig chuckled again, more helplessly. "It's always amusing how grim those people are. People mock Ache Lamao, but what is there to do but laugh in the face of this?" He vaguely waved towards the outside.

Wilson looked at Falkner extremely dryly. "Yes, I wanna make that planet that had arms my new home. Anyone want to join me? Captain? We can even get an arm for you to take back to the High Lords!"

"We probably could, if we shattered the planet with your impenetrable and empty skull, Wilson." Rho deadpanned.

"What about his gigantic ego that makes him charge everything?" Angsar offered, referencing a certain infamous incident in a training scenario.

"Commander, we're picking up what looks like another ship." Kholan announced. "One not covered in moss, in the lee of the gas giant."

"If I remember right, there is the possibility that that's Sara Ryder's ship, she delivered Col. Bright as the first response." Holden recalled.

"Huh, I'll be. It is the Impious Delight." Kholan confirmed. "Fighters have scanned the entire exterior at range. No black gunk found. She's rigged up signal lights for comms, and torn her VI out." Kholan let out a short laugh of appreciation. "Clever girl."

"Is she reacting to us?" Angsar asked.

"She's signaling, takes a while." The admiral replied. "From what I gather so far, her ship is crippled - one of those things got close and she blew the shit out of her own ship. One got on board and she got it out with flashbangs and vacuum, then force blew her own engines. I'm sending in a boarding ship - with remote detonation and crewed by Penals - to take a closer look."

"Hoping she's gonna make it out alive." Wilson hoped, during the pause. "Ryder is a force all his own, and I have a feeling he may end up directly involved in this somehow."

"Alright, more info. Looks like Kinnix was here. They left her here because she lost contact with Jeff Bright, who was still alive as of... six hours ago. They were planning to pick her up on the way out, but...no one has shown up. And no contact with Kinnix since about an hour ago, when Bright contacted her with a drone to indicate they were trying to shut something down."

Kholan broke off to give orders to the crew. "Boarding ship away. I want complete scan bombardment kept on them at all times. If we see anything out of band, fire the PPD at full strength, followed by the interprotons."

The admiral cleared his throat. "Sorry, commander. Did you or your team have any feedback?"

"No, just that R&D would very much like her rescued unharmed." Holden simply said.

"I'd recommend a download of her ship's database but keep it isolated." Angsar proffered, looking around. "Do we know how well versed Penals usually are? Never worked directly with them, though I have seen some on missions I was one.. never lasted long."

"The penals we use are Z1s, mostly." Senna explained. "They are 'redeemable'. If they serve two years with no incident they can become crewmembers. For the most part, the Admiral treats them well, but they know they are the first line in situations like this."

"They're coming up on the ship's outer cargo hatch… no contamination detected so far. Proceeding to arm the M/AM mine and then make an interlock."

Angsar nodded sagely. "Should go well, I think.." Rho shot him an incredulous look.

Wilson saw Rho's expression. "He has a good sense for predictions, Captain. I never gamble against the man when it comes to that shit."

Angsar shrugged. "I'm mostly good with my gut feelings."

"Shuttle Huītzilōpōchtli, status report." Senna messaged the Penals.

"Shuttle Hutch, contact made." The report came back. "Inside looks clean, some fucked up shit near the main airlock, looks like black gunk baked into the hull. Someone sprayed shipfoam all over it. The room's locked down, seeing it through the hatch. Inactive. Heading down main corridor from there… ship's empty, no one else on board… coming up on the bridge. Clear."

"Sir, we've made contact with the officer. She's got class IV bonded quickset sealant into the bridge and every access point sealed off, using bottled air and water. Says she has supplies for six more days."

Wilson raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Girl came prepped for the long haul, it seems."

"We brought an encounter suit with detcharge, put her into it and bring her back?"

"One moment, son. Good work, by the way, let's get your team set up as part of the crew when you get back." Kholan praised the Z1s before switching to the team. "Commander, your input?"

"Does she want to come? Or is she intent on staying for Bright?" Holden inquired.

"Contact team: put her on the radio, if you don't mind. Hook it up to the door intercom." Kholan ordered.

A half-minute, Sara delivered an uncertain "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, marine. I'm Vice Admiral Kholan, Guard of Iron Detachment Honor Guard commander. With me is Commander Holden from R&D Hostile Response and some of his people."

"Hello Sara." Holden greeted politely.

"Not to be rude but would you mind kindly explaining what in the actual fuck is wrong with this system and what is going on?"

"Not sure myself, admiral. Sir." Sara recounted the lengthy, disturbing story. "The last message from Jeff - uh, Colonel Bright, that is - was not good. It included a codeword that he and my dad used when they served together, and said they were facing incoming danger and had been double-crossed, although by who he didn't state."

"I know we haven't met, but I served with both General Kinnix and Alec." Kholan assured her. "Could you share this word?"

After a long silence, Sara answered, her voice soft and small. "Moonrise, admiral. I was to tell my father the word 'moonrise.'"

Kholan was silent. Holden and team couldn't see his face, but… "...Admiral, are you all right?"

Senna's worried question painted the picture well enough.

"...Yes." Kholan answered finally. "Just wasn't expecting..."

Then the admiral began barking orders. "Contact team. Get her in an encounter suit - sans the guarantee package - and back on the ship ASAP. Place breaching charges on the ship's mass core and pull the computer databanks."

"Comms, get me a FTL drone ready - no, make it two, have the fighters escort them. One directly to Sol, Adorior priority, transmission to Master Warrant Officer Jayless Canton and Command Master Chief Winston Logiat. Codeword: Moonrise. The other to Arcturus, transmission to Alec Ryder, same message."

"Weaps, take the fucking interlocks off everything and bring up the secondary reactors. Commander, I really hope your team is as badass as they think they are. We'll be heading to the planet as soon as we wipe this freighter."

"Our success rate is what it is for a reason Admiral." Holden insisted.

"I sure hope so, son." Kholan did not seem so sanguine. "That being said, we'll need to mod some things."

"What's the new plan?" Holden queried.

"Have Ms. Ryder escorted to briefing one when she's aboard and has gone through a quarantine scan." Kholan snapped to a third party before turning his attention to Holden. "I'm not at liberty to discuss certain things. I will need to think on how to proceed. For the moment, assume... "

Kholan trailed off.

"...On screen. Magnify. ...The fuck is that?"

Clearly, whatever he saw did not improve the admiral's demeanor. "All hands, prepare for high speed maneuvers. Bring us into primary array range, helm, all ahead flank. Engineering, make your speed one five five on the reactor."

"Another worm thing just launched at us… Victor above, and another planet just... ate it." Senna's horrified voice just managed to keep within room level.

"This gives the words interplanetary warfare a completely new meaning." Angsar quipped.

"Please die." Rho demanded of him.

"Maybe later."

"...Entering orbit." Rho announced, trying to direct his mind elsewhere.

"Weapons, what is that sensor contact?!" Kholan suddenly yelled.

Blue swirls erupted outside the ship, visible from the open hangar bay doors. Two more worm ships - these considerably larger - burst out into space, followed by what looked like a copy of the Decca, only larger and composed entirely of black material over spars of carbon sheets and struts.

A second later, incoming fire rocked the dreadnought. The team saw the kinetic barriers go down, replaced by a glowing yellow hex shield, that deflected following fire.

Alarms blared throughout the ship. "Alert. Alert. Kyle detonation. Medical teams, begin triage procedures."

"Damage control to main bridge."

"Damage control to deck thirteen."

"Medical Triage, report to mess deck B."

The open link to the ship's command net stayed open. The Admiral could be heard speaking in the background.

"Resolve that fucking signal! ...Jacobsen, Jesus, get the fucking medics up here, poor bastard's torso is gone. Weapons, lock all the fucking interprotons on the Decca and ripple fire. And forward the PPD controls to my station, while you're at it!"

Holden brought up the ship's status on his omni, checking to see how bad it was hit.

The ship's starboard engines had been holed. There were hull breaches in six places, and one of the weapons, helpfully titled ?-1 on his schematic, was listed as out of service.

The tactical plot showed one worm thing blown in half and bleeding, the other is firing graviton weapons, while the Decca hammered the ship with Kyles and crystalline impactors spreading some kind of green-white substance. However, the Repensum's hull was being charged by some device, burning it off.

"I will again ask what the fuck they put on this ship?" Wilson swore.

"If that shit can tank a fucking Kyle, I want one." Angsar marveled.

"I'm gonna act like what I'm seeing wouldn't kill any other ship in the fleet." Olon muttered.

"We are receiving some kind of comms signal from the surface, and at this range we can see something moving on the planet." Senna suddenly informed them.

"Ah, yes. 'Comms. 'Always accept." Angsar's use of air quotes would've made Sparatus proud.

"We have always accepted comms from questionable sources, haven't we Commander?" Wilson asked sarcastically, his tone as dry as a desert.

"The comms signal is standard tightbeam radio, not laser link. Baffling it through isolation arrays now." Senna elaborated.

"All SA units, this is the Repensum, requesting confirmation of pickup location for any survivors. We are under heavy attack and cannot stay long." The admiral's voice was tense but firm.

There was a babble of voices, and then an incoming response.

"Repensum, this is Ciana Vandefar. I'm hurt. My… god.. my team is dead. I-I think I'm safe but..."

"I don't even know this bitch and I already call bullshit." Kholan skeptically commented. "Commander, your advice?"

"Are we sure of the signal source?" Angsar questioned.

"It's… whatever is moving on the surface. A big ass black furred thing about two miles tall. Signal is very near that."

Wilson turned to Paig. "Doctor, do you have any idea what any of this shit is?"

"I have not had nearly enough whiskey to even try to decipher this mess." Paig complained. "However, Ciana Vandefar is more amoral than her aunt and prides herself on her emotional control, physical fitness, and hates appearing weak. This is either an impostor or she is lying, either way she is the only known HERMES survivor and indications are she has betrayed us."

"Light her the fuck up, Admiral." Holden declared. "Killing that thing before we land, regardless if we hit Ciana or not, is a plus in my book."

"Betrayed, huh? Well, oddly enough that fits." Kholan spoke again, his voice soft and gentle, almost fatherly, in replying to Ciana. "Take it easy, ma'am. Just give us a beacon and we'll have you out of there in a jiffy."

"..Hh, grid 5, 83 by 44. The tertiary base...please...hurry."

"Does that even match up with where the comm is coming from?" Wilson asked doubtfully.

"Close enough for government work." Admiral Kholan declared. "Done fucking round. Jon, fire the R-cannon and include a nice fuck you with the main guns loaded with n-rounds."

The ship fired, a spread of glittering torpedoes spat out in a bunch followed by two streaks of light, and the entire surface of the planet below seemed to detonate simultaneously.

"Bitches need stitches." Srinja snickered.

"That would be one big-ass stitch." Angsar replied.

The blast blew mountain chunks into orbit, rippling the atmosphere, and rocking the ship back a good few kilometers.

"Never did like that little tramp." Kholan spat. "Now, open comms again, please, let's see if we can get Kinnix on the line. Ahem. ...Repeat, any surviving SA personnel, please respond. We are sending down rescue teams now."

"I don't think anymore survivors are going to buy it - given we blew up a mountain range after answering one." Holden scoffed.

"Nothing, sir." Senna reported "...Thought the sensors had something, but probably debris from the blast."

"I wouldn't be sure about that, LTC." Wilson demurred. "Call me a cynic, but I call a little blip on sensors appearing before vanishing a tad suspect."

"If the sensors on this ship can't resolve it nothing else could, sir." Senna insisted. "No replies, Admiral. The, uh, fake Decca is spiraling into the atmo, looks like it will crash into an ocean basin. No water, though."

"Alright, Commander." Kholan announced. "Here's your sitrep. Not seeing any more additional x-rays in orbit. Lots of shit on the ground, but the area we just unloaded on should be clear of anything hostile. Unfortunately, the Repensum has taken enough damage that I can't in good faith remain here."

"As a former ship XO, I understand Admiral." Holden acknowledged.

"I'm leaving a second FTL capable pinnace in orbit, along with Ms. Ryder, one of my junior officers, and an N-team. If your situation goes fucky, they can extract. And if someone else shows up, they can explain, hopefully. Sara Ryder knows the system's dangers and frankly she's not cleared to even see where we go for repairs, so we have no choice."

"Understood, will the engineers be dropping?"

"I'm having them drop, but only a third of them - that's all that will fit in one pinnace. The rest will be dropped off with the cruiser picket group."

"That's better than nothing Admiral, and it looks like I was right. This was the most exciting insertion I have ever been a part of." Holden declared.

"You're welcome." Kholan dryly congratulated him. "All hands, set 4SQ. Damage control and medical, move out. Flight deck, launch the drop team and the engineering team at the Commander's convenience."

"Flight deck acknowledged, sir! Ready to launch on your orders, Commander Holden."

"We are going to be a subject of a study, I just fucking know it." Srinja held up her hands, only communicating to the shuttle. "The effects of Kyle Torpedoes on Class II biology. And Holden. I'm not done paying off the replacement spine..."

Angsar looked at Srinja with slight pity. "I don't think they'll ever let you be done."

"Not when I've got the most expensive comms in the infantry." She muttered. "Here we go, chucklefucks."

"Rho, kick the door." Holden ordered.

The pinnace shuddered as the mass effect catapult rotated, then launched it out. The world came clearly into view.

It was bad. Missing oceans. The sky bruised green. The landscape looked like someone took a piss on with acid and then blew it up. Vast ruins so large they were visible from orbit covered half of everything.

As the pinnace dropped into the atmosphere, the sensors reported all kinds of lovely things in the air, including arsenic, heavy metals, sulfur, and straight up phosgene gas pockets.

Angsar sighed. "Holden, you never take us anywhere nice."

"Welcome to Hell." Olon stated.

"Hell would have better scenery." Srinja wisecracked.

"Everyone packed extra air?" Holden checked.

Everyone answered with the affirmative. "Our recyclers are rated for twenty days, of course." Paig added. "Although I would not want to have a serious suit breach here. Pity we did not get to interview young miss Ryder, to see if she had additional information."

"She'll be in orbit, Avasarala can get you on comms with her most likely." Holden observed.

The pinnace leveled out, the terrain below still glowing rubble from the bombardment. They saw piles of corpses - hundreds of thousands of them - scattered and flung in every direction. The corpses looked roughly similar to the Ythrongi descriptions, but wrong somehow.

Trees that appeared more like clawed hands straggled at grimly sharp cliff lines, while the blocky ruins - a dull grey slate color - proved hard to focus on, the curving lines seeming to swim in everyone's vision.

A huge rock shield - probably exposed by the blasts - terminated abruptly in ruined hills, and in the lee, the team spotted an unlikely sight, what seemed to be part of a JOTUN mech, blown into the hillside.

With a feathery shudder, the ship touched down on a rocky shelf clean of any debris, the two smaller shuttles following suit.

Paig studied an omni-tool readout. "Not as useful without a VI, but we are picking up the beacon signal for at least two HERMES beacons."

Angsar peered oddly at the surrounding area. "Slight distortions around the buildings, non-standard geometry not limited to this phase, I'm guessing."

Holden messaged the engineers, and the team in orbit. "Comms check, sound off."

"Engineers, down safely. Need about fifteen to deploy the equipment, a little jumbled up after all the fighting."

"Orbital ship online." Sara Ryder replied. "Be careful transmitting on anything but tightbeam - Jeff reported the black ball things seem to hone in on wideband radio sources. The Repensum is already breaking orbit. They, ah, left one Kyle torpedo in case things go bad."

"One hell of a kamikaze charge." Angsar muttered.

"I will only risk orbital comms once I know what the response to any signals sent will be." Srinja informed Holden.

"Copy, I expect it will." Holden agreed. "Keep watch Spyglass. Engineers set up and dig in. If you've got plasma ammo, best switch to it."

Everyone began sealing their helmets, while Agent Rho extracted a long, thin rod from his backpack, and smiled behind his helmet faceplate. "I think we can manage a little better than that."